Review this Book   Kindle Edition Audiobook Download to your Nook (eBook) Amazon Barnes & Noble.com My Website Category:  Mystery/Suspense Publisher: Speaking Volumes ISBN-10:  1645404137 Type: Fiction Pages: 347 Copyright: Mar 15, 2021 ISBN-13: 9781645404132 Price: $6.99 (eBook) Lark Chadwick is back, solving the mysterious death of Holly Stone, the daughter of her friend and mentor Lionel Stone. Lark Chadwick is back.  The scrappy reporter for the Pine Bluff Standard is embroiled in another tale of intrigue.   While doing battle with an unscrupulous real estate mogul, Lark, against the advice of her friend and mentor Lionel Stone, impulsively flirts with diverting her career into broadcast journalism. But, as Lark quickly learns, the line between being famous and notorious is a thin one.    In Bluff, book two in the Lark Chadwick mystery series, award-winning author and former CNN journalist John DeDakis once again gives readers a behind-the-veil glimpse at the good and the bad of journalism. DeDakis takes Lark from the small-town environs of Wisconsin to the ancient Inca Trail in Peru to help solve the mystery surrounding the death of Lionel Stone’s only daughter Holly.       Excerpt "Holly wrote that earlier she’d heard mem- bers of another hiking group at the hostel talk- ing about having a card game. 'I think I’ll join them,' she wrote, 'and maybe get drunk.' Her diary came to an end with these words: I don’t want anyone near me on the trail tomorrow. Was just dozing now and had a weird dream. I dreamed I was on the trail. It wound higher and higher into the sky. The moon was full. Someone was chasing me. I couldn’t tell who it was, but he kept getting closer and closer. Suddenly, I was pushed from behind, tripped, and went falling over the side of the cliff. That was the last entry in Holly Stone’s di- ary. My heart was galloping by the time I came to the end. I had so many questions: The dream was obviously a premonition of her own death, but was it a self-fulfilling prophecy? Did she become so obsessed with the possibility of fall- ing that she accidentally tripped and fell to her death? Was she drunk or hung over after stay- ing up late drinking? Or was Holly pushed? And, if she was pushed, who did it? For the past year, Lionel and Muriel had firmly believed that Holly’s death was a sim- ple accident. But they’d never read all of what she’d written in her diary. I had a gnawing feeling that Holly Stone was murdered."

Professional Reviews
Diane Dimond
“Lark Chadwick is my hero! A true investigative reporter in every sense of the word. Lark reminds me of me in the early days of my career, driven by curiosity and the need to unravel true and compelling stories. It’s no surprise that veteran journalist John DeDakis so accurately depicts the life and work of a reporter and how a complicated mystery gets solved. But how DeDakis can so accurately write from a woman’s point of view - with all the intrinsic curiosity, emotion and passion - is nothing short of astounding. The public rarely gets a glimpse of what an investigative reporter’s life is like: the curiosity-propelled pursuit of a story, the loneliness and the inherent danger in many assignments. That’s the real untold tale of how meaningful journalism gets to the public. I want more Lark Chadwick adventures!”

-Diane Dimond
Author and Investigative Journalist

Charlene Fu
“I raced right through it. Definitely hard to put down! John DeDakis is a masterful storyteller who has adroitly woven several story lines into
this fast-paced page-turner. With true-to-life characters and an insider's knowledge of the world of journalism, the second of DeDakis' Lark Chadwick mysteries will not disappoint fans of Fast Track.”

-Charlene Fu
Former Veteran Foreign Correspondent for the Associated Press

Reviews for "Bluff"